Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Feb. 16th, 2026 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureThese are the rest of the pictures I took today, from the savanna and prairie garden. (See the House Yard and South Lot.)
At the southwest corner of the driveway, the white garden is just some rumpled yuccas for now.
At the northwest corner of the driveway is the wagonwheel garden. My two pink mica rocks glitter in the sun. I need to trim around them.
The telephone pole garden is still all brown.
Inside these jugs are the pawpaw seedlings from last year. At least one is still alive!
The hazelnut catkins have not opened yet.
The wildflower garden is all dead grass (mostly northern sea oats) and flower stems. I need to get out and clear this off before the flowers sprout.
The savanna has a lot of moss.
The bee tree was surprisingly active, with honeybees to-ing and fro-ing at a rate of about one bee every few seconds. This is absurdly early for the girls to be out -- nothing is blooming yet.
At first glance, the east end of the savanna looks quite brown.
On closer examination, the first snowdrops are sprouting. In a few days, these will be everywhere.
Looking west across the prairie garden, it is still all brown.
I was surprised to find a couple patches of snow in the prairie garden, even after unseasonably warm days and rain.
This is the one of the big branches fallen in the savanna that will need to be moved before mowing season.
More snowdrops are sprouting at the north end of the flowerbed.
The tulip bed has lots of things sprouting.
These are tulips. They've been up for a while.
These crocuses (the narrow leaves with the green and white stripes) appeared more recently.
The daffodil bed isn't sprouting yet.
This is the rain garden.
Crocuses are sprouting here. I need to rake off the leaves soon.
At the southwest corner of the driveway, the white garden is just some rumpled yuccas for now.
At the northwest corner of the driveway is the wagonwheel garden. My two pink mica rocks glitter in the sun. I need to trim around them.
The telephone pole garden is still all brown.
Inside these jugs are the pawpaw seedlings from last year. At least one is still alive!
The hazelnut catkins have not opened yet.
The wildflower garden is all dead grass (mostly northern sea oats) and flower stems. I need to get out and clear this off before the flowers sprout.
The savanna has a lot of moss.
The bee tree was surprisingly active, with honeybees to-ing and fro-ing at a rate of about one bee every few seconds. This is absurdly early for the girls to be out -- nothing is blooming yet.
At first glance, the east end of the savanna looks quite brown.
On closer examination, the first snowdrops are sprouting. In a few days, these will be everywhere.
Looking west across the prairie garden, it is still all brown.
I was surprised to find a couple patches of snow in the prairie garden, even after unseasonably warm days and rain.
This is the one of the big branches fallen in the savanna that will need to be moved before mowing season.
More snowdrops are sprouting at the north end of the flowerbed.
The tulip bed has lots of things sprouting.
These are tulips. They've been up for a while.
These crocuses (the narrow leaves with the green and white stripes) appeared more recently.
The daffodil bed isn't sprouting yet.
This is the rain garden.
Crocuses are sprouting here. I need to rake off the leaves soon.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 11:56 am (UTC)Everything here is still buried in the ice and snow from three weeks ago... but meltage is finally taking place, yay.
Awwww, yucca. I haven't seen any since I moved here from southern California in 2017.
Yes ...
Date: 2026-02-17 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 07:12 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2026-02-17 07:41 pm (UTC)Thank you!
>> Everything here is still buried in the ice and snow from three weeks ago... but meltage is finally taking place, yay.<<
Yeah, we had a deep freeze and the snow stuck around quite a while. Then it warmed up, but there are still pockets -- one streambank above a drainage ditch has a long strip of solid snow.
>> Awwww, yucca. I haven't seen any since I moved here from southern California in 2017.<<
Yucca in central Illinois has an interesting history. It grew even when I was little -- but it was isolated from its pollinators and thus rarely set seed. Just occasionally there would be a pod or two pollinated by some curious local insect. But then ... the yucca moths arrived! Presumably they followed the yuccas north as people planted more in landscaping. So now, many of the flowers not only set seed, but some of the pods have little holes where the caterpillar drills its way out after eating some of the seeds. I actually have a couple of small, volunteer yuccas in the wagonwheel garden now. :D
Thoughts
Date: 2026-02-17 08:12 pm (UTC)